Elmore Leonard was loved by many book readers for the wonderful stories he created, but what some people don’t know is that he was also very much a “Writer’s Writer”, meaning, he was equally a major inspiration to many people who wanted to write novels. One thing he was famous for were his “10 Rules of Writing”. Thank you Mr. Leonard.

Here’s the list:

1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said"...he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

“My most important rule is one that sums up the 10,” he wrote. “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”

As an added bonus, here’s a really great BBC Video where he explained these rules to a British audience. It’s great. Check it out!

MENTAL_FLOSS is a really fun video series hosted by John Green, where knowledge junkies get their fix of trivia-tastic information. In this video (down below), John looks at common spelling and grammar errors such as “Stationery vs. Stationary,” “Good vs. Well” and “Loose vs. Lose.” So, if you fancy yourself an aspiring writer or author; then please be sure to watch it now!

Check out this cool video that is a great documentary about a reporter’s difficult search for the celebrated Japanese Book Author, Haruki Murakami. I just discovered this beautiful gem on YouTube the other night and I knew I had to post it because every fan of Murakami is going to enjoy watching it. In fact, if you have never heard of his books, then you should watch it, because afterwards… you will love him.

Check out these really great videos of Authors from the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group sharing advice and insights into the craft of writing. Then, after you get done being entertained here (and hopefully learning a thing or two or just being very inspired) you can also enjoy the entire playlist by clicking HERE!

Over at the OTHER PEOPLE PODCAST With Brad Listi they recently posted Episode # 157 which turns into a very interesting interview with Ayana Mathis. Yes, I bet you know who she is. Ayana Mathis is the Author of THE TWELVE TRIBES OF HATTIE (Knopf). The new book just came out last December and is still going strong. It’s been reviewed by almost every major news outlet out there and you might have heard about it because this novel became the second book chosen by Oprah Winfrey for her new OPRAH BOOK CLUB 2.0. We also need to mention that Chip Kidd did not design the cover. Sometimes, when we feature books on this website that Kidd didn’t design, there is some slight confusion. So, we want everybody to know that a very talented Graphic Designer named KELLY BLAIR (gifted/beautiful) designed the wonderful book jacket you see here and she did an amazing job.

Whoops, OK sorry to ramble on, ha! The main focus of this post is to share the link for the OTHER PEOPLE Podcast where Brad Listi interviews Ayana Mathis about many things like: Being a Writer, What the success of her first debut novel is like, What was it like to meet THE Oprah Winfrey, and so on. In fact, the story of meeting Oprah is really fun! So, please check it out by clicking RIGHT HERE.

Oh yeah, the book is out right now. You can find it at your favorite Bookstore or, if you’re too busy, just click the Amazon link down below. Thanks.

Over at the OTHER PEOPLE Podcast with Brad Listi, Author David Shields talked about his new book, “How Literature Saved My Life”, published by Knopf. It’s a very in-depth interview as they discuss Fiction, Publishing, Book Writing Methods, and many other Book-Related things. It’s very thought provoking & if you’re a fan of Shield’s work you just have to hear it, it’s fun! Just CLICK HERE! Oh yeah, as a side-note we should also mention that Chip Kidd designed this Book Cover and you can see a larger view in the Gallery Section of CHIPKIDD.COM by clicking HERE!

Author/Writer Neil Gaiman has teamed-up with Blackberry to promote their new phone, the BlackBerry® Z10. So, they created a brilliant idea where Gaiman’s Fans and fellow Writers can all share their input to create a special story titled, “A Calendar of Tales”. Yes, this is all about fun creative collaboration!

What it’s about is a set of twelve stories recently inspired by crowd-sourced tweet-responses to questions from Neil, and now available as a free download for all to read. That project is still ongoing, as now Neil is encouraging people to submit art inspired by the stories, which may then be featured alongside them. The Video clips down below should explain quite a bit what this project is all about so please be sure to check them out. Also, you can visit the Official Blackberry “Calendar of Tales” Website by clicking RIGHT HERE!

Here’s a really great humor video that has been on the Internet for awhile but it’s worth posting because it’s both hilarious… and true! It’s all about being a Writer. So, if you want to be an Author please give it a view.

Posted here, for your learning enjoyment, is a new video in which John Green kicks off the CRASH COURSE Literature mini-series with a reasonable set of questions. Why do we read? What’s the point of reading critically? John will argue that reading is about effectively communicating with other people. Unlike a direct communication though, the writer has to communicate with a stranger, through time and space, with only “words on a page.”